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One Class A drug is cocaine, which one in 44 people in the South West admitted to taking.

Cannabis was the most popular drug in the South West, with one in 14 people saying they had smoked it.

The report shows that ecstasy, hallucinogens, amphetamines and cannabis have become less popular, while cocaine use has become more widespread in England over the past 20 years.

About 29.6 per cent of people aged between 16 and 59 in England and Wales said they had smoked cannabis at least once in their lives, while almost one in 10 people said they had taken cocaine at least once.

Cocaine use has spread over the last 20 years (Picture posed by models) (Image: Picture posed by models)

This means that about 3.2m people have taken cocaine and 9.7m have taken cannabis.

People aged 20 to 24 are the biggest drug users, with more than one in five people in this age group reporting taking something in the past year.

Men were more than twice as likely to take drugs as women.

The survey showed that going out at night was strongly correlated with drug use.

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For example, one person in 43 in England and Wales said they had taken cocaine in the past year - but this rose to one in six among those who had been out clubbing four or more times in the past month.

Drug users were also more likely to be single, unemployed or a student, a recent victim of crime and to say that they were unhappy with life, the report found.